Articles and Interviews

Article on Kirsten Dunst, also taken from Wicked Magazine, Spring 2000:

Blonde Ambition

Kirsten Dunst has blossomed from child vampire to Hollywood ingenue—and she's just getting started

by Chandra Palermo

It might be hard to believe, but beneath those golden curls and porcelain features, actress Kirsten Dunst has a dark side. Years of seeing Dunst in movies like Little Women, Jumanji, and Small Soldiers may have eclipsed the role that established her as a promising talent. But for horror fans, it's hard to forget the young actress' compelling portrayal of scheming child vampire Claudia in the big screen adaption of Anne Rice's best-selling Interview With the Vampire. Now, after turns as ditsy coquette in comedies Dick and Drop Dead Gorgeous, the 17-year-old actress is returning to the genre that put her on the map.

In The Crow: Salvation, Dunst plays Erin Randall, a woman who must help the man erroneously executed for her sister's murder clear his name and track down the true killer.

"It was such a great change character-wise for me," she says. "My character, Erin, is so strong. I really got to kick butt, something I never get to do. She doesn't stand back and just watch. And it was a difficult role. She's dealing with her sister's death and everything. In the beginning, she's a much weaker character definitely. She lives with her dad now. She has no mom. Her sister's dead, so she's a lonely girl. So, when she meets the Crow and helps him avenge her sister's death, I think she learns more about love and becomes much more of a tougher girl.

"I also liked that she was the type of person it would take some time and effort to get to know, which is the very opposite of me," she continues. "I love to vary my roles, so that as an actress I am continually challenged."

Though unfamiliar with the previous Crow films, Dunst accepted the role in Salvation as soon as she was given a rundown on the genesis of the stories behind the visually lush franchise. "When I heard the story of the Crow and how [James O'Barr] came up with this whole idea of the Crow, it really touched me, and I wanted to be a part of it," she says, adding that she hasn't regretted the decision for a moment. "[Director] Bharat Nalluri is so creative. The world he creates and draws you into is so captivating. I think the effects will set this movie apart from its predecessors and the storyline is really strong. I think everyone will enjoy it, Crow fans and people who haven't ever seen a Crow movie before."

Actor Eric Mabius (Cruel Intentions, Black Circle Boys) plays the latest incarnation of the restless soul brought back from the grave by a crow to settle a score. When asked about her co-star, Dunst can hardly contain her youthful exuberance; she brims over with adoration. "I think Eric and I had a really amazing chemistry on screen," she says. "Every time I worked with him, it was so intense. His eyes are amazing to look at. With that Crow makeup on, you have to express so much with your eyes. I think he's very intense, and I think he comes across as one of the best Crows. He's got a very good air about him—that kind of mystique of a mystery man."

Dunst should know what she's talking about. At this early stage in her career, she has amassed an impressive co-star roster, which includes the likes of Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Robin Williams, Winona Ryder, Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

The Point Pleasant, NJ, nativeknown as Kiki to close friends—started acting at the age of 3, when she balanced modeling jobs and work in commercials. "My first [commercial] was for a doll that went pee," Dunst admits in a fit of embarrassed laughter. "I would be made such fun of on the school bus going home. All these kids would sing me the theme song."

With more than 70 commercials for products like M&Ms and Kix cereal on her résumé, Dunst and her family moved to Los Angeles in 1989, where she successfully made the jump to the big screen with small parts in Bonfire of the Vanities and Woody Allen's New York Stories. After her Golden Globe-nominated performance in Vampire, Dunst won challenging roles as troubled teens on NBC's primetime champ ER and in Lifetime's Fifteen and Pregnant. She continued her silver screen work in films like Wag the Dog and Mother Night and managed to win a coveted spot in People's 50 Most Beautiful People list of 1995.

Aside from The Crow: Salvation, Dunst can be seen this year in high school comedy Cheer Fever and Sofia Coppola's directorial debut The Virgin Suicides. "I love horror films and sci-fi movies, so it was nice to do The Crow," she says. "But I like mixing everything. I want to make sure I don't do just one type of film. I have an interest in all genres, and i think you grow more as an actor by doing more."

Despite her full plate of acting gigs, Dunst is looking forward to branching out into other areas of filmmaking. She says she'd like to open a production company with her mother that will allow her to write, produce and direct. The company, the actress explains, would focus on finding and developing better roles for women.

For the present, however, these ambitions take a back seat to more immediate concerns, like high school. After all, Dunst is still a teenager. "I am very happy with my life right now," she says. "This year, I'm graduating high school, and I am really excited about all the fun stuff that goes along with being a senior, like prom and graduation. Right now, I just can't think about anything else. In the future, I am very interested in starting the production company, but I'm still very young, so I'm not worrying about the future too much right now."

--additional reporting by Annabelle Villanueva

Article on The Crow: Salvation, taken from FANGORIA Magazine, May 2000:

Killing For "Salvation"

The team behind the new "Crow" film swear they've learned from the mistakes of the previous sequel.

by Marc Shapiro

Revenge is swift and sweet in the land of the Crow. And on the set of The Crow: Salvation, it is also filled with blood and gunfire.

Inside a dark warehouse on the outskirts of Salt Lake City, director Bharat Nalluri is quietly going about the business of setting the stage. Cops with big guns are about to ambush the latest incarnation of the dark avenger. Needless to say, the ghost of Crows past haunt this scene as prop masters double- and triple-check the ammo to make sure evry one is a blank.

Off in a far corner of the warehouse, star Eric Mabius is being fitted with a body's worth of squibs. The latest incarnation of the deadly avenger, Alex Corvis, sports makeup literally burned into his skin. His eyes, tired and piercing in the best Crow tradition, stare forward. Mabius is definitely in the mood.

Nalluri checks the cameras one last time, steps behind a monitor and calls for action. The Crow enters the darkened warehouse...and immediately finds himself in hell. It's a classic ambush as a squad of corrupt cops opens fire. When the smoke clears, however, their jaws drop as they see that their target is still standing. And throughout the night, the pieces of the ensuing action sequence are committed to film. Alex turns one cop bloody with a broken pipe thrust to the gut. He breaks to hoods' arms, picks up a gun and shoots them. Then it's time for a basic Mexican standoff. Later that evening, a harnessed-up Mabius is hoisted up into a simulation of a supernatural flight to the rafters.

"I was standing there, facing off against 10 cops," the actor says later. "I opened my arms wide with a gun in each hand. They open fire, but since I'm the Crow, they can't kill me. Then I open up. And the revenge is so complete."

There are ghosts in Salt Lake City during Fango's visit to the Crow: Salvation set. Snow-capped mountains slice through clouds in an eerie tableau. Outside the city proper, the hustle and bustle is replaced by long stretches of deserted road, spotted with occasional warehouses, truck stops and industrial parks. And quiet. But the ghosts are not only picturesque: In years past, Michael Myers has stalked through three Halloween sequels shot in the area. And as The Crow: Salvation adds another genre icon to the city's visitors list, more than one member of the sequel team has acknowledged the spitiual presence of Brandon Lee.

Yet while there's the occasional joke about the "Crow curse," Lee's tragic death is still a sore point among the Crow hierarchy. A publicist's curt "We don't need to talk about that!" greets a question posed to Mabius regarding whether he was nervous about the bullet-ridden action sequences in the wake of Lee's demise.

That eruption aside, the vibe appears to be pretty mellow, considering that The Crow: Salvation (tentatively scheduled for release next month from Dimension) is attempting to resurrect respectability for a franchise that started out with a bang but stubbed its toe with The Crow: City of Angels and briefly resurfaced for a one-season TV stint with The Crow: Stairway to Heaven. "There's no competitive pressure," says production designer Maia Javan. "but we do have a lot to live up to."

We definitely made some missteps with the second Crow," says Jeff Most, who has produced all three films with Edward R. Pressman. "We needed to take a step back after that one to consider what the essence of the Crow is. We've figured out what would work for us as filmmakers and what would work for the audience."

Director Nalluri is downright defiant on the subject, "This is The Crow: Salvation," he says. "It's not Crow 3. I'm not about to repeat the past."

And on the surface, The Crow: Salvation (written by Millenium's Chip Johannessen) appears to be skewing smart. It's equal parts horror, mystery and urban noir with just a touch of the supernatural; the film seems to be skirting the first two Crows' emphasis on fantasy in favor of a raw realism rife with corruption and human betrayal. The setting is the titular town, where Alex Corvis, a young man from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks, is falsely accused of the murder of his sweetheart, Lauren Randall (Halloween: H20's Jodi Lyn O'Keefe). Despite Alex's insistence that a mystery man with a scarred arm is responsible, he is put to death in the electric chair—only to rise again to seek justice for both himself and his lady love. In the process, he befriends Lauren's younger sister Erin (Kirsten Dunst), and must protect her from the same shadowy but very human forces that set him up. The cast also includes Fred Ward, William Atherton and Pet Sematary's Dale Midkiff.

In the 21-year-old Alex, the doomed protagonist has an incarnation that fits comfortably into the demographics of the series' core audience. Even Crow comics creator James O'Barr, who couldn't distance himself further away from City of Angels, is reportedly happy with Salvation; Most points to O'Barr's blessing as a sign that the new sequel is on the right track. "James feels a much greater passion for this storyline than he did for City of Angels," Most says. "He's satisfied with the process, whereas he wasn't satisfied with the second one. I promised James that we would stay true to the vision of his comic. I promised we would go back to the hard-edged reality that people can relate to. And I believe that I've kept that promise."

Even though he occasionally slips back into the role of Angels apologist, Most is very much the cheerleader following yet another round of all-night shoots. "This film has a very strong connection to the real world," the producer says. "There's little that's occult here, except that the Crow has returned. We don't play upon the mysteries of the universe with the Crow's adversary as much as we present a very real-orld presence of antagonists who, for all intents and purposes, are stronger than the occult."

Most, who insists that Dimension is not looking over his shoulder, relishes what he perceives as a more visceral approach to the Crow's story. "We wanted something that was spine-chilling, but also something that could happen in anybody's backyard," he continues. "Corruption is a much more tangible nightmare. It's an evil that encompasses our daily lives. Our bad guy is an evil who can be encountered on any street corner. This is a very real horror, something you confront on a daily basis or may confront tomorrow."

But the best story in the universe won't help if the Crow's current incarnation is nothing more than a mindless avenger. Most insists that in Alex Corvis, they have a youthful dead man walking with many of the same character traits that have made previous incarnations enticing. "Alex is young," he says, "and over the course of the story, we get an opportunity to see how this innocent learns to handle the power of the Crow. Yes, he's fierce as the dead soul out for revenge, but he also has fun with his powr and grows into his role as somebody who has to learn to mete out justice. He's very vulnerable in dealing with the loss of the person he loves, yet strong in carrying out the Crow legacy."

In the center of a warehouse out on the edge of town sits an execution chamber. Gothic-paneled, complete with a descending corridor and the traditional witness chamber, this is where the wrongfully accused Alex meets his maker—and the Crow. Not too far away sits a mammoth monster of an electric chair which, along with the chamber, seems severely out of touch with the 2000-era storyline. These items are typical of the approach to atemporal detail that informs The Crow: Salvation.

"All the styles of the sets cut across decades," says designer Javan. The production contains an abundance of actual locations, with none of the backlot, miniatures or oversized structures that were a trademark of the first two Crow films, though visual FX supervisor Tom Rainone still found plenty to contribute. "The story is set in the present, but just about everything we've done is a mixture of contemporary and period elements," Javan continues. "We've created the town of Salvation, which has lived from the '40s to the present. Nothing in this town has been thrown away. There are TVs from the '70s and cars from the '80s. The police captain's office is a perfect example of what i mean. We have a real old-fashioned telephone sitting right next to a computer."

Through the use of saturated color patterns, plenty of designs centered around cages, grids and bars and surreal, quirky asides, Javan's design team and cinematographer Carolyn Chen are attempting to highlight the evil that lurks beneath Salvation's patina of small-town America. "All of our sets had to stand between hyperreality and reality," Javan explains. "There's a lot of loneliness and corruption in our designs that serve to point out the twisted secrets that lie below the surface. But we're not big on the clutter and the trash-lined streets that the other Crow films had. It's in keeping with the film's tone that there are not many things to hide behind in this city."

Especially when the place is essentially being torn to pieces in the process of shooting The Crow: Salvation. On one particular night, director Nalluri stands in the middle of a blocked-off Salt Lake City street, angling the cameras for a car chase sequence that ends with one vehicle slamming headlong into a bus. The director, a littleknown Londoner who got the Crow gig on the strength of his debut film Killing Time, is like a kid in a candy store as he wanders among the trailers, cars, cameramen and stunt drivers.

"I've never doen the big Hollywood stuff before," he says, fighting drowsiness after another long night in the Crow trenches. "Blowing up buildings and driving cars through buses is all new to me." But the personable Indian-born director (who partnered with Event Horizon's Paul Anderson early in his career) believes that Salvation will sink or swim on the strength of the less explosive moments. "The emotional scenes are really strong," he says. "We recently shot a scene where Alex is holding his dying girlfriend in his arms, and we did a massive close-up of this single tear falling from her eye. For me, scenes like that are about this movie. This is not just some guy in makeup running around blowing things up. At the heart of this movie is an incredible love story."

Nalluri felt it was important that this pivotal third entry "should bring the Crow down to the age of the core audience and make it relevant to them. I felt going into this film that we needed a new plot, a new angle and a new way of telling the Crow story. For me, that was the major challenge. I didn't want to bore the audience with the same old stuff."

Nor did he want to drop the ball. "I absolutely felt like the new kid and that I had to prove myself," Nalluri syas. "It's a great script, so I wasn't faced with having to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I always felt we had it on the page, which is a good starting point. From that point, I knew the rest was up to me."

One of the elements that Nalluri has enjoyed exploiting is the youthful, immature nature of the new Crow. "Because Alex is so young, we get to play around with what a kid would do if he came back with these powers," he says. "We have scenes where Alex has had a good laugh at being able to jump off buildings and through windows and have nothing that can hurt him. At the beginning of the film, he has come out of this horrible situation and he's actually enjoying his powers. But then he starts to realize that there was a reason he was brought back from the dead. And that's when he changes from a boy to a man."

Alex sports a somewhat different look than his predessors as well; the visage by Alex Diaz (who supervised all of the film's makeup FX for KNB) is based on the "death mask" he wears during his botched electrocution.

Typical of genre filmmaking, Nalluri has found his first American project to have both easy and tough moments, but to this point he has weathered the storm. "The difficult thing about this film has been making it fresh, giving audiences something they haven't seen before," he says. "Easy is having the most amazing cast I've worked with in my life. They keep coming to me for suggestions, and I'll say 'Keep doing what you're doing.' There have been some surprises. Kirsten has proven to be a good little action star. She's been running around shooting guns like nobody's business. The difficulties have been the usual stuff. There's never enough money or time to shoot everything you want to shoot. Ideally, I would have loved to have 80 days to shoot this film."

But as the movie nears completion, he's finding satisfaction in helping that Crow take flight. "The elements of corruption and mystery in this movie make things much more interesting," Nalluri says. "It isn't just 'Man comes back from dead, seeks revenge, kills people and walks away.' For me, this movie has been so much more than that."

And for Dunst, The Crow: Salvation is not just the typical gal-in-distress bump and grind. "Usually girls in these kinds of films don't end up doing much," the actress laughs. "But Erin gets to really kick butt in this film. She doesn't just stand back and watch. I get to fry people and shoot people with guns.

Dunst allows that her character, like others in the film, is in transition. "In the beginning, Erin is a weak, lonely person," the actress explains. "But when she meets the Crow and helps him get revenge for the murder of her sister, she learns more about love and becomes a tougher girl, because she is totally alone and has nobody to turn to but the Crow." And in one scene, Dunst has a romantic interlude with the undead avenger. "Working with Eric was real intense. He has the most fantastic eyes. And yes, I did kiss him. It was a nice kiss, but it wasn't any big deal," laughs Dunst, who, after all, began her career kissing Brad Pitt in Interview With the Vampire.

As for Mabius, he had a tough scene the previous night. he was not killing anybody and there was no car chase—but the next afternoon, sitting intensely behind the steam rising from a coffee cup, it's obvious that it made quite an impression. "It was this dialogue scene," he says. "I had this line, 'What price for a life?' that's sort of the soul of where I'm coming from with this character. I've been playing a lot of moments—frustration, confusion. This Crow deals with insult, injury and torture. It drives him mad, but it brings him back to his humanity."

Mbius, who has carved out an interesting indie career in the likes of Lawn Dogs and Welcome to the Dollhouse, along with such genre-oriented fare as The Minus Man, Black Circle Boys and A gun for Jennifer, admits to having a blast with the sequel's action setpieces. But he turns contemplative when discussing what he considers the finer points of his portrayal. "I think people will see the strength of my character in the scenes with the woman I love. From that fountain of having the archetypal love torn away, everything just kind of flows."

Mabius expects the inevitable comparisons to the previous Crow actors, particularly Lee. He pauses a moment, considering his response. "You know, it's like I always figured Brandon was playing the truth in his scenes in the original Crow," Mabius says. "It was like he got totally out of himself and into the character. That's what I've tried to do. And in doing it that way, I'm wondering if I should enjoy playing this part, because I'm playing a lot of pain."

Mabius adjourns to an early-evening breakfast in preparation for yet another noght of Crow mayhem. Although the anthological nature of this film series would prevent him from returning to the role, he gleefully joins in the specualtion of what a fourth Crow scenario would be. Director Nalluri draws immediate interest when he offers that the next installment should "take palce in the Wild West and that the Crow should be a woman."

For his part, Most feels certain that the avenging spirit will fly again. "With the Crow, one does not run the risk of tiring out the main character," the producer says. "Our central character is a bird. Who can get tired of a bird?"